This invention relates in general to television systems, and more particularly to a system and architecture for providing a plurality of different classes of video and multimedia programming and including the logical interface method for accessing said plurality of video and multimedia services.
The old definition of television services included a channel which was essentially nothing more than an analog broadcast video source. However, in the brave new world of digital programming, the home communication terminal (xe2x80x9cHCTxe2x80x9d) otherwise known as the settop box has become a more powerful computing device than the typical analog cable TV set-top. In addition to supporting traditional analog broadcast video and functionality, these devices must also support an increasing number of services which are not analog (but rather digital), are not broadcast (two-way communication as for example E-mail), and are not video (such as web browser). These are all in addition to a host of other television services which are increasingly being demanded by customers, examples of which include audio and audio visual programming, advanced navigation controls, interactive program guides, impulse pay-per-view captivation, video on demand programming, advanced configuration controls, and other online services to name but a few. In order to provide these more powerful and complex features, the simple channel abstractions need to be extended beyond those which have traditionally been provided.
With the capabilities of advanced one-way digital networks, a multiplicity of applications become feasible such as downstream e-mail delivery, electronic magazines, electronic newspapers, and other graphical and textual services for news, sports and financial information, to name but a few of broadcast authorizable services. With the capabilities of a two-way, digital network other applications such as impulse pay-per-view, video on demand, electronic commerce and web browsing become possible. All these services can be offered in parallel with conventional broadcast television and can be considered differing service categories. As the number of services available via cable or satellite television increases, there is a need for a model in which the television viewer can access these services. Given that a viewer of newer generation digital HCTs can access up to thousands of channels and services available, there will be a large amount of service and channel definition information that needs to be transmitted from the headend or server location to the client or HCT. Traditional methods of broadcast television and services in cable television systems do not provide the necessary amounts of information to support all these channels and services, nor are they capable of efficiently transmitting, storing, accessing, and processing the corresponding large amounts of information in the HCT.
Cost limitations on HCT manufacture impose limitations in compute, memory, and internal machine bus bandwidth that in turn limit the amount of compute resources required to implement increasing digital video and multimedia functionality. Consequently, it would be desirable to provide a system in which required service related information is transmitted from the headend to the HCT in a methodical fashion so as to minimize: required network transmission bandwith; time to organize the information for storage in the HCT; memory footprint of the information in the HCT; and the amount of time required to then access the information in the HCT. Additionally, this information must be updated in an efficient manner such as that when the services and channel lineup are changed the HCT is provided the new information.
It would also be desirable to provide this system and method in which a particular application for a specific service is preloaded on the HCT and, if not, arrange for it to be acquired from the headend and loaded. This, of course, would require the ability to have two-way digital cable TV network for communication between the headend and the HCT, or an advanced one-way digital network in which system and method acquires specific broadcast service information by accessing and retrieving data with a predetermined file name and identification, such file retrieved from a broadcast file system (xe2x80x9cBFSxe2x80x9d).
Accordingly, there exists a need to provide a mechanism whereby applications on the HCT can be activated from the server via a signaling message received from the HCT, to provide the user with services such as Emergency Alert Messages, email, and other messaging.